SKA wins at CSKA due to Kovalchuk hat trick

08 Oct 2012 | Dennis Mende

A stellar performance by the lockout star lets SKA become second in their division. But which team has most points in KHL so far? Sibir Novosibirsk! The surprise team was also too strong for Traktor.

Traditionally Amur opened the matchday as whenever they play at home. Against the star ensemble of Metallurg Magnitogorsk they had no chance though. Only at 33:11 did Sergei Gonchar put Magnitka in front with his first strike in this lockout during a power play. In the third period Cal O'Reilly and Evgeny Malkin added another two - the Malkin goal was assisted by Gonchar. Georgy Gelashvili in the Metallurg net earned a 34 save shutout.

The advantage of Traktor Chelyabinsk towards Metallurg Magnitogorsk melted to just three points today. Despite a lead at 03:29 through Anton Glinkin the guests couldn't avoid that home side Sibir Novosibirsk, leader of Chernyshyov Division, made it 2-1 in the following ten minutes through Stepan Sannikov and Alexander Kutuzov. This was already the final result.

A little sign of life by Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg. In Novokuznetsk they only earned their third win of the season. Branislav Mezei and Alexander Streltsov had put Avto in front before Metallurg answered with goals by Konstantin Turukin and Dmitry Chernykh. When the shootout had to bring the decision Josef Straka and Fyodor Malykhin won the extra point for Yekaterinburg.

Clear win for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl against Barys Astana. The home side was already in front with four goals until 44:44 through Alexei Kalyuzhny, Dmitry Kulikov, Mark Flood and Alexander Chernikov before Konstantin Rudenko and Nigel Dawes made the result a bit nicer for the Kazakhs with power play goals.

A very important win to stay in fighting distance with the playoff spots for Torpedo Nizhni Novgorod. At home against Avangard Omsk they won with the clear result of 7-3 - though the game was pretty even as the result was 4-3 for Torpedo until 47:11 when Mikhail Varnakov set the starting point for a calm ending phase of the period.

Atlant Moscow Oblast could stop their negative series of three consecutive losses. The home side was already in front 4-1 after two periods before Vitaly Sitnikov with a shorthander at 53:37 could only cut the lead to two for Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk.

Match of the day was the battle of the two top sides CSKA Moscow and SKA St. Petersburg. Until 22:49 a stellar performance by their top line earned CSKA a 2-0 lead. Pavel Datsyuk and Mikko Mäenpää had each one goal and an assist while Alexander Radulov had two assists. Man of the match became a player of the opposing team though. Ilya Kovalchuk scored his first ever KHL hat trick and turned around the match almost alone. First he tied the match with two goals until the begin of the third period before Kevin Dallman scored the game winner for SKA at 43:48. Later in the period Ilya Kovalchuk added another won for the final score of 2-4 that places St. Petersburg on the second position of Bobrov Division.